Aspidoras Ihering, 1907
This genus of small Corydoradinae catfishes comprises 19 nominal species and a few, as yet undescribed species, which were allocated a C-number (C35, C36, C37, C118, C119 and C125).
The genus was established by R. von Ihering in 1907 for Aspidoras rochai. A second species, Aspidoras lakoi, was described by P. Miranda de Ribeiro in 1949. In their revision of 1976 Nijssen & Isbrücker described nine new species and transferred two more species from Corydoras to Aspidoras. Aspidoras virgulatus was described by Nijssen & Isbrücker in 1980 and recently Britto (1998, 2000), Lima & Britto (2001) and Britto et al. (2002) described further taxa. Britto (2003) proved that the genus Aspidoras is closely related to the genus Scleromystax and both genera form the tribe Aspidoradini within the subfamily Corydoradinae, family Callichthyidae.
The main difference from all other genera of the subfamily Corydoradinae is the presence of a supraoccipital fontanelle (Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1976), which proved to be an autapomorphy for the genus (Reis, 1998, Britto, 2003). All species are quite small, rarely exceeding 50 mm in standard length (SL).
For the aquarist, the members of the genus are normally quite easy to distinguish from other Corydoradinae by their behaviour. Most of the species are diurnal and actively search for food the whole day. In particular, the species from the central Brazilian rivers and those from northeastern Brazilian coastal rivers share a similar colour pattern which makes it hardly possible to determine a particular fish without knowing its origin. Aspidoras species are endemic fishes, inhabiting only restricted areas of some major river drainages (Britto, 2000). The forms known in the hobby are few. Normally only Aspidoras pauciradiatus is exported from Manaus, Brazil. Aspidoras cf. taurus and Aspidoras fuscoguttatus do come from central Brazil, State of Goiás and, recently, Aspidoras depinnai came from Pernambuco State in small quantities. In Germany there are several species available, due to the collecting and later breeding activities of a few aquarists.
Aspidoras species